CFSP in the News

This article explores planned large-scale infrastructure -- including high speed rail -- and stimulus spending in Thailand. Opponents of the program have called for fiscal prudence and have questioned the amount of public debt it would require. CFSP Faculty Director and MIT Professor Robert M. Townsend points out, however, that average debt-to-asset ratios are low and have been decreasing since 2006, a fact which suggests that concerns about spending are overstated.

Recent CFSP in the News

CFSP member Tavneet Suri and coauthor William Jack's research on M-PESA, Kenya's mobile payments system, was highlighted in Will Mutua's recent article on how M-PESA is affecting not only the households who use the service but also the national economy. Mutua discussed the possible implications for monetary policy and cites Suri and Jack's survey research, "Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA."

CFSP member Christopher Woodruff sat down with Viv Davies of VOX to disuss his recent research in Sri Lanka that looks at the constraints to growth of micro-enterprises and how to generate job creation; he highlights the effects of wage subsidies, savings programmes, entrepreneurship training, firm registration and the transition from small informal firms to more dynamic enterprises. They also discuss a new 5-year competitive research grants programme, directed by Woodruff and co-ordinated by CEPR, that focuses on private enterprise development in low-income countries. To listen, download an audio file, or read a transcript, click here.

Toulouse7 news in France previews CFSP's Faculty Director Robert M. Townsend's winning of the Jean Jacques Laffont Prize at the city hall in Toulouse, France in January. The prize is in honor of the economist Jean Jacques Laffont and awarded by the city of Toulouse and the Industrial Economic Institute (IDEI), founded by Laffont.

CFSP member Douglas Diamond has been awarded the 2012 Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance. “Doug Diamond has been at the center of the development of the modern theory of banking and financial intermediation,” said John Cochrane, head of the American Finance Association award selection committee. “He has brought careful bottom up economic analysis to all the issues that are at the center of our current — and historical — financial problems [...]His work literally founded the field."

CFSP Faculty Director Robert Townsend's acceptance of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in economics is featured in LADEPECHE, highlighting his work on government regulation and work in developing countries. One economist is chosen each year for his or her work in the spirit of economist Jean-Jacques Laffont.

CFSP member Christopher Woodruff was chosen to guide a £15 million research initiative funded by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in partnership with the Department for International Development. The initiative, entitled "Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries," seeks to understand how market forces in developing countries interact to impede private-sector efficiency. Abhinay Muthoo, chairman of the University of Warwick Department of Economics, where Woodruff is on the faculty, offered his congratulations on the appointment. He remarked, "This undertaking is sure to shed new light on the possibilities for sustained private-sector growth in developing countries."

CFSP member Abhijit Banerjee and his colleague Esther Duflo, together, were named one of Foreign Policy's top global thinkers for 2011. Foreign Policy cited their groundbreaking book, "Poor Economics," and their work together at the Abdul Lateef Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT as key factors in their making the list. FP said, "Banerjee and Duflo argue that hunger is not solely the result of being unable to afford enough food. Just like every other consumer on the planet, they found, the world's poor purchase goods based on the human desire for short-term pleasure over long-term gain."